Global General

Russia's free market reform architect dies

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-12-16 19:22
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MOSCOW: Yegor Gaidar, one of the initiators of Russia's economic reforms in the post-Soviet era, died Wednesday at the age of 53, his aide said.

"Yegor Gaidar has died, I cannot currently give any more details," his aide Gennady Volkov was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Gaidar reportedly died of a blood clot early Wednesday at his home in the Moscow region.

Gaidar, who served as the acting prime minister under Boris Yeltsin, was one of the leading architects of the free market reforms after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The reform was known as "shock therapy" after Gaidar decided to implement the massive changes within a very short period of time rather than progressively.